Objective
The FACE project addresses the major unresolved issue connected with home systems products: how to make them easy to use. Many such products have features that lie unused because of the perceived complexity of the user interface (UI). The problem is aggravated by the lack of agreement between manufacturers on such aspects as panel layouts and control strategies.
The objective of FACE is to agree a set of rules and guidelines for the design of UI through work involving manufacturers and academic UI experts from the field of human-computer interaction. This includes the application of these methods and tools in order to analyse user, task and environmental requirements, to develop and evaluate concrete UI prototypes, and to implement these components in demonstrators.
The quality of the user interface (UI) of home computer systems in terms of usability and efficacy was examined, resulting in the selection of the most appropriate interaction techniques. The benefits of various techniques such as graphics, colour, icons and multimedia were investigated and designs developed and evaluated using computer simulations and emulations. These iterative developments and evaluations required several investigations in the field and close cooperation with end users.
It was demonstrated that an agreed set of UI techniques based on the concept of familiarity could make home electronic products, with a wide range of functions, simple to use. Preliminary work has been carried out in the following areas:
establishment of end users' requirements for a selected range of home products;
analysis of a classification of current home product functions and derivation of a generic function set applicable across different types of home product;
analysis and evaluation of existing UI techniques used in home products;
development of a common UI model as a basis for future UI design;
development of a set of rules and guidelines for the design of familiar UIs and to influence design standards;
development of product simulations and emulations to illustrate the application of the rules and guidelines.
A preliminary version of the 'Guidelines and Rules for Design of User Interfaces for Electronic Home Devices' has been published. This document consists of three parts: general rules, common elements and appendices. The general rules provide basic information about user interface design. The common elements part consists of a commonly agreed set of the rules for user interface elements. Appendices list translations, abbreviations and references.
The main goal was to demonstrate that an agreed set of UI techniques based on the concept of "familiarity" can make home electronic products, with a wide range of functions, simple to use. Sub-goals were to:
- establish end-users' requirements for a selected range of home products
- analyse a classification of current home product functions and to derive a genericfunction set applicable across different types of home product
- analyse and evaluate existing UI techniques used in home products
- develop a common UI model as a basis for future UI design
- develop a set of rules and guidelines for the design of "familiar" UIs and to influence design standards
- develop product simulations and emulations to illustrate the application of the rules and guidelines.
Fields of science
Topic(s)
Data not availableCall for proposal
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CR4 4XY Croydon
United Kingdom